


Mnemosyne

by Kerryl



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Completely necessary Sherlock joke, Gen, I said Avengers but it's mostly Iron Man and Spidey, Infinity War AU, Non-Graphic Violence, Sad Peter Parker, Something happens to Tony Stark, The title is a giveaway to Greek myth fans, written before canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-06 19:50:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15202214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kerryl/pseuds/Kerryl
Summary: In the coming days and weeks, the media will dub it “The Final Battle”, splashing it in all-caps across the front pages of newspapers. It’s a title that’s suitably dramatic and disappointingly unoriginal, but it captures the gist.Because Thanos has finally arrived.An Infinity War AU. For Annie.





	Mnemosyne

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StellaHunterOfArtemis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellaHunterOfArtemis/gifts).



> This was written before canon, so consider it a how-it-could-have-happened.

“Tell me his name again.”  
“Thanos.”

In the coming days and weeks, the media will dub it “The Final Battle”, splashing it in all-caps across the front pages of newspapers. It’s a title that’s suitably dramatic and disappointingly unoriginal, but it captures the gist.

Because Thanos has finally arrived.

He lands, naturally, in New York City. Symbolic, given that the team that faces him was first forged in the heart of this city. They have adopted it, they have become mascots and protectors of this sprawling metropolis, vaulting themselves from its pedestal into the eyes of the world. As the mastermind of years of alien attacks finally descends upon their beloved planet, the rest of the world watches on in fear and a traitorous flash of gratitude to the powers that be that they do not live in perpetually-besieged New York.

How long ago was it, Peter wonders, breathing raggedly as he crouches on a skyscraper’s ledge, that a schoolbus of science kids stopped to gawk at the ship that had appeared in the sky? He can’t tell anymore – an hour, a day, a week? There’s been some spacetime bending, some manipulation by Doctor Strange (which is apparently his actual name, what even). It awed him in the beginning, but now has warped his entire sense of time. Constantly, always right behind his feverishly running thoughts, is a gut-wrench of worry about Aunt May. He knows, by some vaguely flickering memory, that May and everyone else are safely in the underground bunkers, but he’s still _so scared_. How long has it been?

There are people he’s never met before and people he’s never heard of, all with special skills. In the past decade, they have worked in their own little corners of the world, even the universe, trying to save people. They help evacuate everyone into the bunkers built over the years for such an eventuality as this, and then they mobilize. They have appeared to protect this planet and the universe it belongs to. These heroes jet across the world, following, pre-empting Thanos, splitting into teams. If someone stopped him and asked, “Where are we?” he’d have no answer.

Right now, the only familiar person is Tony. With his even tone and dry observations, he is the known variable in this mess of a problem.

“We got incoming,” Tony warns over the _very_ long-range comms Shuri has handed out. (That girl has awesome tech. Peter has decided they will be friends.)  
Shuri snorts, recalibrating one of her vibranium fists. “No really, Sherlock.”  
“You should actually say no sh-”  
“ _Language,_ Barton,” says Natasha mockingly, setting off a round of snickers and one – is that Captain America? – resigned groan.  
“For once, _I’m_ not the one being called Sherlock,” muses Doctor Strange.  
“You’re welcome, Doc.”

Most of this exchange is lost on Peter, who’s anyway having some trouble with the overload of his spidey-senses. This is easily the most overwhelming battle he’s ever been in. Karen, newly embedded in the Iron Spider suit, starts to filter out the barrage of sights, sounds, smells, and stats, but lets him know, always, where Tony is. It’s grounding. It’s keeping him in the moment. It’s keeping him fighting to save the universe.

He’s trying to fight through an almost definitely broken-in-two-places bone and maybe a stab wound when it happens.

Later, most of the fight against Thanos will be a complete blur in Peter’s memory, worse than it is during the battle itself. Nothing but an indeterminably long multicoloured smear of fragmented images and sounds, like a badly edited montage. But this one moment will stand out, piercing the chaos. Heartbreakingly clear.

_Something_ hits the Iron Man suit. Footage, retrieved from the Stark mainframe, will show what happened next. The blasters begin to fail. The _thing_ burrows into the suit, towards the arc reactor on Tony Stark’s chest, and FRIDAY starts trying to save him. Warnings go off in the suit, automatically letting everyone on their side know something’s wrong.

“Mr Stark has been hit.”

Blood thunders through Peter’s ears as he skids to a stop. _No_. Everything around him fades from a crashing typhoon assaulting his senses to a background white noise. He doesn’t really believe what’s happening.

He’s in a bit of a dream state when he catches one of T’Challa’s hover-ferry things, deployed as ambulances, to get to Tony’s coordinates. It’s like tunnel vision. He doesn’t see the wounded Dora Milaje trying to catch their breath, not sparing a second look at the limping, bleeding, iron-spandex-clad kid shaking in the corner.

Thanos has retreated for a while. Peter and the other wounded are quickly patched up and sent to get some rest for the next bout of fighting. As he leaves, Peter catches a glimpse of Tony.  
He’s unconscious, encased in glass like some gender-bent Cinderella. _In stasis,_ someone says. A hologram hovering over his prone body pulses. _It might have been an alien bioweapon._ The door closes, and Peter feels sick.  


\-----x-----  


They defeat Thanos. It’s not quite the victory they hoped.  


More than an outright victory, a ripping out of the evil intending to destroy the universe, it feels like a pause button. A temporary subduing. Evil always rises. It’s a matter of how much it destroys before good takes over again.  


Slowly, life begins to flourish again. People cautiously leave the bunkers into sunlight and rubble. Cities are rebuilt, governments reestablished, aid cobbled together by the remnants of SHIELD distributed. Bonds emerge, forged in the fire of the war. An army of doctors spreads out, treating people, and those who fought in the war and have lost limbs find themselves with hi-tech prosthetics.  
Except Tony.  


Shuri has fixed every physical injury Tony has. She’s reknitted broken bones, sealed wounds, stitched together torn muscles. But the alien tech had a virus of some sort, some neurotoxin, something that has seeped into him and changed the man.  


He’s lost his memory. Entirely. He stares blankly at his visitors and doesn’t respond to his name. He doesn’t recognize the Iron Man suit, or words like “SHIELD”. Pepper looks like she’s going to cry when he asks her if she knows why he’s wearing a wedding ring. Everyone tries to answer his questions, tell him what he’s lost. But how do you condense a lifetime of experiences and memories into a conversation?  
You don’t.  


Iron Man does not exist anymore. Tony Stark does not exist anymore. All that remains of him is a broken suit, a going-grey goatee, and a flicker of an ever-curious mind that slowly reaches for snatches of memories.  


A British-accented voice. Heels clicking against tile. A darkened cave filled with metal. A multilingual mystery man. Burning rubble. A name on a tower. A creature of metal, an airport fight, alien technology, a kid’s plaintive voice. A white dress, a smile under a veil. A metal suit and helmet – red and gold, dented but gleaming. Snatches of memory guarded, hidden away, that nobody knows about. Yet.

**Author's Note:**

> When I wrote it, I thought this was sad, and out of character for the MCU. Then canon came along.
> 
> ALSO: RDJ and Benedict Cumberbatch in one movie- I had to do the Sherlock joke. I had to, even though I couldn't get Agent Ross to say it. (Russos- please get Ross to make a Sherlock joke about Strange and Stark in the next one.)


End file.
